This invention relates to a cap, and in particular a cap having at least one transparent plastic pocket for accommodating and displaying at least one object, such as a P.O.G. bottle cap, a baseball card or even a fishing lure.
Many styles of functional headwear have been patented, particularly for use in various sports, such as baseball, hunting or the like, or for use in conjunction with employment, work or an activity where the headwear has built-in features to facilitate a particular task or job. The present invention is unlike all such aforementioned known headwear of the prior art. One prior art headwear design that appears to be most closely related to the current invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,076, issued to Gamm. The Gamm patent discloses a cap with an integral pocket that can be used to store smaller sized personal items, such as keys, coins or paper money. This cap has a decorative panel attached to the front portion of the cap which is removably secured by Velcro, a snap or other like fastening device to the apex of the cap to form a pocket. This panel is used to conceal from view various personal items stored within the pocket for safekeeping by an athlete during participation in a sporting event, or the like.
The cap of the present invention, unlike that disclosed in the Gamm patent, is a form of functional headwear used to display objects contained in one or more transparent pockets arranged around the cap. In particular, the cap of the present invention can be used by children to display baseball or collector's cards or the well-known P.O.G. (papaya-orange-guava) bottle caps or similar collector's pieces produced by SLAM-TEK and other manufacturers or the like which are currently popular collectible items among children. Other items that could be displayed include baseball cards, fishing lures and other items. According to the present invention, at least one transparent panel is attached to the head covering portion of the cap in order that the aforementioned items may be inserted or removed from each such pocket by the user. Additionally, the panel and pocket of the present invention are not secured by a fastening device to the apex of the cap and do not extend to the apex of the cap, as required in the Gamm patent. Thus, the item contained within each transparent pocket are both visible and easily accessible to a user.